Peer-To-Peer News - The Week In Review – December 13th, '03

[JackSpratts]

Quotes of the week: "The pornography available on peer-to-peer networks is not necessarily more dangerous than the pornography available on Web sites or through other electronic means of dissemination." – The United States General Accounting Office.

"The GAO observed that peer-to-peer networks accounted for only about 1.4 percent of the child porn." – John P. Mello Jr..

"As far as computer hard drives are concerned, we say that for the time being, it is still legal" - Claude Majeau, referring to music downloading, secretary general of the Canadian Copyright Board.




P2P Speaks

Last week I mentioned giving Skype and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) a try thinking it’s just about perfect for filesharers interested in improving communication. Skype came to mind because it’s P2P based, using well known peer-to-peer protocols like superpeering to handle data transfers and because of it’s built-in anonymity; it doesn’t call your home or office phone, it remains strictly PC based. This week I tried it out.

The free program download was fast and install and setup was a breeze. A quick check with freshly updated versions of Ad-Aware and Spybot showed nothing in the spyware department so after picking up a couple of different headsets I was ready to go. The only problem I could see was Skype’s claim that it only works with 2000 and XP and I’m using Windows/ME on the test machine. Only one way to find out. I got in touch with a filesharing friend via a chat room in Waste and he agreed to install the app. That was it. Minutes later we were talking – and it worked with ME. It was that easy. Sort of. We had some minor problems configuring mics and speakers and such and we’re not sure if these were hardware problems unrelated to Skype or something more fundamental to this application but it will get worked out soon.

The Sound

Initial conversations were simplex in nature – like a walkie-talkie, first one party speaks and stops - then the other goes ahead. We weren’t able to have a duplex conversation at any point during the two hours plus calls we made. We’d tried “hanging-up” (click the hang-up bar in the drop down menu) and “redialing” to get a better line (double click a username) but it didn’t solve the problem - although it did lead to some initial improvements. In the end nothing we did got us into full duplex mode and so in that sense Skype is not like regular telephone calling, it can be more awkward – at first. I found I got used to the system very quickly, especially with the chat box open and after a short time I was talking away - when the signals got through. Typing the occasional word or two kept the conversation running right along so in that sense it’s a big deal for chat. You’ll get away with typing about 90% less when you’re using Skype and your chat sessions will be much more nuanced and detailed. Still, duplexing is the way to go and to that end we’re experimenting with a registry hack for the problem.

After I tried the fix I talked with a Canadian friend (who hadn’t tried it) and the conversation was much improved, with partial duplexing during the entire exchange and pristine, noiseless sound quality. We both have ME.

And this is only the beta.

Bottom line: Worth the install? You bet. It’s not perfect but when it’s working it’s the best telephone audio I’ve ever heard. And when it’s stuttering and stopping it’s still a useful application in circumstances like those described above. I spoke to someone on the other side of the globe for over two hours this morning. Someone I’ve known for two years but never heard until now. I’ll soon be repeating that with other net acquaintances I might never have contacted were it not for the anonymity provided by the program. In and of itself that’s a pretty amazing thing. That these endless conversations won’t cost us a penny makes it all the more remarkable. And it’s just the beginning.









Enjoy,

Jack.








These Uploaders Get Paid – Not Sued

SML Ships Weed File-Sharing Software, Offers $5 to New Users
Press Release

Shared Media Licensing, Inc. released Weed Media Activator version 2.0 today. The free Windows software is a central component in the company's innovative distribution and promotion service, which pays Internet users to share music files.

This release updates Weed's preview version released last August. The software enables you to purchase Weed files you've downloaded from web sites or peer-to-peer networks. Any Weed file can be played 3 times for free. After that, you're invited to purchase the song at a price set by the artist. Purchasing a song unlocks it and allows copying to CD or portable players.

The most revolutionary part of the concept is this: buying a song can make you money if people you share files with also buy it. When you share a Weed file with friends who buy it, 20% of the sale price is credited to you on each sale. Sales at the next two levels down earn 10% and 5%, respectively. 50% of every sale is credited directly to the artist or other rightsholder. The remaining 15% goes to SML.

New Weed users receive a free $5 balance in their accounts so they can try the system out. Most files cost about $1.

SML President John Beezer says that Weed's service finally puts artists and listeners on the same side. "If you try to distribute music contained in Weed files in an unauthorized fashion, you're not only hurting the artist, you're hurting yourself. You lose the opportunity to share in future sales."

"Weed recognizes the role of the music fan in supporting new artists and distributing great music to people who will enjoy it." says Beezer, "Word of mouth has always been the primary means of introducing new music -- Weed encourages and rewards it."

"Ultimately, Weed puts more control in the hands of artists and fans. If you discover a band you're passionate about, you can buy their songs and send them to your friends. The artist gets paid, you get paid, and the people who got the music to you get paid. Everyone's happy."

More information, including software download link, the current "Weed Top 10" and a list of web sites offering Weed files, is available on SML's web site at www.weedshare.com. Details, downloadable graphics and other press materials are available from: www.weedshare.com/web/press.html.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...&newsLang =en


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Norwegian DVD Piracy Retrial Ends
Reuters

The landmark retrial of a Norwegian who achieved fame when he was cleared of DVD piracy charges lodged by top Hollywood studios ended Thursday with prosecutors demanding a suspended 90-day jail term.

A final verdict from the Oslo Appeals Court, which will be closely monitored by the U.S. movie industry as it seeks to set a legal precedent, is due Dec. 22.

Jon Johansen, dubbed "DVD Jon," pleaded not guilty to charges that he broke Norwegian copyright law by cracking the copy-protection code on commercial DVDs, enabling unauthorized copies to be made.

Prosecutors from Norway's Economic Crime Unit, which pursued the case on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America, (MPAA) argued that Johansen's copying of DVDs was unauthorized and therefore illegal.

The MPAA, which represents Hollywood studios like Walt Disney, Universal Studios and Warner Bros., estimates that piracy costs $3 billion annually in lost sales.

The state prosecutor repeated a demand from the original trial for a 90-day suspended jail term for Johansen, but said a milder sentence of 45 days would be appropriate if the court chose to disregard the argument that he had caused damage for the film industry.

"It is perhaps too great a responsibility to put on Jon Johansen's shoulders," state prosecutor Inger Marie Sunde told the court.

Johansen, now 20, helped develop and distributed on the Internet a computer program for DVD copying in the late 1990s, prompting Hollywood to file a complaint in Norway as part of a global crackdown on piracy.

The Oslo district court established in January that Johansen could do whatever he wanted with DVDs that he had legally bought. It also said prosecutors had failed to prove that his program--called DeCSS--had been used for illegal copying.

Prosecutors lodged an appeal, objecting to the application of the law and the presentation of evidence.

Johansen's lawyer, Halvor Manshaus, continued to focus on the right of the consumer rights to do whatever they want with their own DVDs in the seven-day retrial.

"When you buy a DVD film, you are buying the right to watch it," Manshaus said. "How you choose to do that is up to you."

Both sides can lodge a new appeal to the Supreme Court.
http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5120669.html



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New Ad Campaign Targets Music Swappers

Recording industry enlists parents in $2M fear-of-viruses advertising series
The Canadian Press

Who knows what dangers lurk in the unregulated and often illegal world of Internet file sharing?

That's the question posed in a $2-million advertising campaign launched this week by a trade group representing Canada's recording industry.

The campaign's first 30-second television ad, produced by Toronto agency Cyclops Communications Inc., is directed at adults whose children use the Internet to swap files -- often unsupervised, in their bedrooms.

"It's aimed at parents because many of them don't have any idea what their kids are doing or can find on these sites," said Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

"There's a lot more than music that can be accessed on these sites."

CRIA's commercial depicts a young boy using his computer to download a file when he's suddenly swarmed by what appears to be a SWAT team -- outfitted in white biohazard suits and gas masks -- that uses a set of oversized tongs to transfer both the boy and computer to a truck waiting outside.

"Illegal music sites# have viruses that can do a lot of damage," the commercial's voice-over says. A message on the screen reminds consumers that legal downloading sites, such as Puretracks.com, are free of viruses, pornography and spyware.

The ads begin airing this week on cable channels such as Bravo, the History channel and Sportsnet.

Like U.S. firms including Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Roxio Inc.'s Napster, CRIA and the syndicate that owns Puretracks.com are trying to find ways to persuade music fans that they should pay for material that many are already getting for free through programs such as KaZaA.

Apple, for instance, will be the focus of a promotion airing during the telecast of the National Football League's Super Bowl on Feb. 1, when an ad produced with PepsiCo Inc. will tout their plans to give away 100 million songs from ITunes.

While Canadian figures aren't available, U.S. sales of legally downloaded music are expected to reach $1.4 billion U.S., or 11 per cent of the industry's $12.8 billion in sales before 2006, according to Forrester Research. That percentage could reach one-third by 2008.

CRIA is funded by 32 members, including Universal Music Canada, Sony Music Entertainment Inc. and EMI Group.
http://www.canada.com/technology/sto...7-A0EAFF880FBB


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Feds Get A 'D' In Computer Security
Robert Lemos

U.S. federal departments and agencies are showing some improvement in protecting their computer networks, but many--including the Department of Homeland Security--are failing, according to a government report released Tuesday.

The report, prepared for the House of Representatives' Committee on Government Reform, found that almost all agencies improved their computer-security grade since last year. However, several key federal departments continued to fail to adequately protect their networks and earned an "F."

"For too long now information security has taken a back seat in the collective conscience (sic) of our nation," said a statement from Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee chairman. "We must come to the stark realization that a major Achilles heel is our computer networks."

Overall, the government earned a "D" on this year's report card. In 2002, it was given an
"F."

Two agencies, the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, slipped in the rankings since 2002. The newest department in the federal government, the Department of Homeland Security, got off to a bad start with an overall "F" for its computer security, despite the fact that securing the nation's network is part of its mission.

Davis took the private sector to task for poor security overall as well.

"The culture of our top-level CEOs in the private sector, and top executives in government, must be changed," he said in the statement. "We must get those at the very top, the decision makers, the ones accountable to the shareholders, the customers or the electorate, to recognize that lack of network security in an organization is a material weakness and one that deserves necessary resources and immediate action."

This year, two agencies earned an "A": The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the National Science Foundation. Ironically, a privately maintained nuclear reactor under the NRC's jurisdiction suffered an attack by the Slammer worm in early 2003.

The agencies rankings can be found on the Committee on Government Reform's Web site.
http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5118344.html


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The File-Sharing Debates
David Pogue

In this space, I wondered why the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and movie studios get so worked up about online file swapping, when public libraries distribute their works freely without a penny of compensation.

As usual, some of this column’s readers responded thoughtfully and with authority; I thought I’d share three of those reactions with you this week.

The most enlightening piece of e-mail came straight from the source: the Video Software Dealers Association, the trade association for the home video industry. Public affairs executive Sean Bersell neatly nipped my queries in the bud:

“You said, ‘Why do the publishers and movie studios let the library get away with it? For that matter, why don't they object to the Blockbusters of the world, who let people rent movies by the millions?’

“The answer is, ‘Because they don’t have a choice.’

Copyright law requires copyright holders to give up their ability to control distribution of those works once they have put them into the stream of commerce. This principle, commonly referred to as the ‘first sale doctrine,’ is codified in Section 109 of the Copyright Act. The first sale doctrine gives libraries and video retailers the right to rent and sell prerecorded videos and video games without the authorization of the copyright holder.”

Mr. Bersell pointed out, too, that in fact, members of his organization did indeed raise “fierce objections,” as the vsda.org Web site puts it, to the rental of videos. He went on: “Second, you said, ‘Whether we steal these movies or rent them, the Hollywood studios don't see another penny after the initial sale.’ That used to be true, but in the late 1990s, most major studios entered into revenue-sharing arrangements with major video rental chains. Under these agreements, the studios and the rental stores split the rental revenue. Initially, revenue sharing was used only on VHS, but it is now being extended to DVD. I should note that revenue sharing has been controversial in the industry.”

Meanwhile, another reader noted that, “Our real problem isn't here. It's in Asia. My brother just came back from China with maybe 20 copies of ‘X-Men 2,’ ‘Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘Terminator 3.’ These aren’t crummy DiVX copies-- they are gorgeous DVD-R, with nice motion menus, fake covers, ISBN numbers, the whole thing. You'd swear that they were the real thing. So, why are we going after our domestic kids in colleges and high schools...when our real pirates are in China?”

Finally, this intriguing note arrived from a guy who’s both a software engineer and a musician in two bands: “It’s my belief that music CDs will soon be given away free. The CD will become promotional material to advertise a band’s live shows and merchandise for sale. Space inside the CD cover could even be sold for advertising.

“This will have several results: First, bands will reduce the cost of producing a CD by making use of the incredible capabilities of your average digital recording system to avoid the ridiculous hourly prices that professional recording studios charge. (Next week my band is doing this very thing.) Self-production will become the norm.

“Second, CDs will become shorter, more focused and released more frequently. (‘See us on tour next month at these locations! Hear these four songs performed live!’) Third, bands will perform live far more often and venues for live music will see a resurgence in popularity.”

From your mouth to the RIAA’s ear, buddy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/09/te...rtner =GOOGLE


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Sea Change
Simon Tsang

Whichever way you look at it, this has been a pretty eventful year for consumer technology. Mobile phones now make video calls and take happy snaps when you're least ready. Digital cameras are now an essential item in any handbag. Games consoles with broadband bring together players from across the world. And all manner of gadgets rain down to tempt us with their multiple functions.

Not that any of this makes selecting Christmas presents easier. In this month's buyer's guide we've sifted through the plethora of gizmos to outline the best options in the most popular categories to help you decide.

Heading the list, garnering most mainstream media attention, is anything related to digital music. The ongoing battle between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks took on a new twist when the RIAA began targeting individuals deemed to be "egregious" swappers of copyrighted music.

Such is the frontier nature of digital media and the internet, industries and laws have been struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, in the absence of any sensible solution from the recording companies to selling digital music, consumers have been finding their own ways of getting the tracks they want online.

It took the Mac maker, Apple, to show how it was all supposed to be done when it announced its iTunes Music Store in the US on April 28. For the first time in digital music history, the focus wasn't on digital rights, but "personal use rights", which in quintessential Apple fashion, favoured consumer friendliness. At US99 cents a song, the internet crowd loved it and despite being available only to Mac users in the US, iTunes Music Store boasted 1 million songs downloaded in the first week.

It's been so successful that Microsoft has thrown its hat into the ring, announcing plans to launch an online music store despite formerly insisting it wouldn't.

What this all means for consumers is that they are finally getting what they've been asking the recording industry for all along - a reasonably priced music download service that respects the rights of the legitimate user.

We're still waiting for such a service to be made available in Australia, but that hasn't stopped the ever-growing popularity of portable digital audio players. As memory capacities increase, sound qualities improve and prices continue to fall, consumers are snapping them up by the truckload. And now, like the mobile phone industry, digital audio players are creating a market for makers of third-party accessories like Belkin's new range of iPod add-ons.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...351780810.html


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U.S. Congress: P2P E-Smut 'Not Necessarily' More Dangerous than Other Forms
John P. Mello Jr.

"Although some users of peer-to-peer networks might believe that they are sharing files anonymously, it is possible for law enforcement officials to discover identities of individuals sharing child pornography and other illegal material on peer-to- peer networks," the GAO wrote in its letter, a copy of which was obtained by TechNewsWorld.

Smut distributed through peer-to-peer networks isn't inherently more dangerous than titillating matter found elsewhere on the Internet.

That was one of several findings by the research arm of the U.S. Congress, the General Accounting Office (GAO), in a letter responding to written inquiries by the Senate Judiciary Committee following the panel's hearings in September on P2P technology .

"The pornography available on peer-to-peer networks is not necessarily more dangerous than the pornography available on Web sites or through other electronic means of dissemination," the GAO wrote in the letter to committee chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

The GAO's comment came in response to the committee's query, "Is there something particularly dangerous about the pornography on peer-to-peer networks, whether in the user's ability to share it anonymously or in its accessibility to children?"

"Although some users of peer-to-peer networks might believe that they are sharing files anonymously, it is possible for law enforcement officials to discover identities of individuals sharing child pornography and other illegal material on peer-to-peer networks," the GAO wrote in its letter, a copy of which was obtained by TechNewsWorld.

The agency went on to say: "With peer-to-peer networks, pornography is easily accessible to children and the risk of inadvertent exposure to pornography is significant. However, pornography is also easily accessible through other electronic means, such as Web sites, and the risk of children's inadvertent exposure to pornography exists on these other mediums as well."

Red Herring

According to Adam Eisgrau, executive director of P2P United, a Washington, D.C., organization that represents a group of peer-to-peer providers, the pornography issue has been used by the recording industry as a "red herring" to make P2P networks a target for Congressional action.

"The GAO absolutely documents that the problem of the exposure of children to child pornography is an Internet-driven problem overall," he noted. "The material is not only just as available over the Internet in general; it's vastly more available over the Internet in general."

The agency noted that it would be difficult for operators of P2P networks to prevent the introduction of child pornography on their systems. "Unlike traditional Web sites, which have centralized content management , users control the content that is available on peer-to-peer networks, and the users of the network are constantly in flux," the GAO said.

Moreover, as Jarad Carleton, an IT industry analyst with Frost & Sullivan in San Francisco pointed out, some P2P developers, such as the Freenet Project, are creating networks whose sole purpose is to preserve their users' anonymity. According to a Frost & Sullivan report published earlier this year, Freenet protects anonymity by making data "placeless."

The report noted: "The concept of placeless data is handled in the Freenet platform by creating a cell structure, similar to terrorist cell structures that have been designed to protect a person's anonymity. Therefore, any node that participates in retrieving a piece of information, only knows where it got the request from and where it sent the request to. It doesn't know where the request originated nor can it determine which node answers the request."

The Judiciary panel also asked the GAO if the volume of child pornography on peer-to-peer networks is underreported. Although unable to address the question directly, the GAO observed that peer-to-peer networks accounted for only about 1.4 percent of the more than 62,000 reports of Internet-related child porn collected this year by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/32341.html


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Porn Purge At Australia Post

UP TO 50 Australia Post managers and staff have reportedly been caught sending pornographic emails, some showing children engaged in sex acts. Sydney's Daily Telegraph says at least four employees had resigned, two were sacked, dozens had been suspended pending further inquiries and more sackings were expected. The newspaper said most of the offenders were white-collar workers in NSW and four were from Queensland. Every Australia Post staff member had their computer hard-drives and email profiles examined during the investigation.

Several of those suspended or forced to quit claimed they had been made scapegoats to allow management to avoid a wider inquiry. One NSW manager said he was forced to quit because he was found to have forwarded two pornographic emails. Other managers had been found to have viewed up to 500 pornographic images including extremely graphic pictures and video.

"Some people may deserve criminal charges," the former employee told the newspaper.

"I definitely feel some of us are being used as scapegoats by people higher up."

A spokesman for Australia Post denied that senior management was quarantined from the investigation.
http://australianit.news.com.au/arti...E15306,00.html


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Japan Journal

69% Of Nation Is Worried About Leaked Personal Info

Sixty-nine percent of Japanese are worried their personal information could be leaked from public entities and private firms, according to a government report.

The results of the Cabinet Office's survey on the protection of personal information show that public distrust is high despite a privacy protection law passed in May.

The last time the government conducted a survey of this kind, in 1989, the figure was 39.8 percent.

The new survey of 3,000 men and women aged 20 and older nationwide was conducted in September and October.

It found that 82.2 percent of the respondents expect violations of privacy to increase due to the growing use of computers to store personal information and the growth of the Internet. The survey had a response rate of 70.9 percent.

Misgivings were high among younger people, with more than 80 percent of people in their 20s and 30s saying they are concerned about unauthorized disclosure of information.

Of all respondents, 66 percent said they are concerned their information will be used for purposes they have not approved, jumping from 40 percent in the survey 14 years ago.

Asked what they most want kept private, the highest percentage of respondents -- 74.3 percent -- cited their financial records such as salaries and tax payments, up from 48.1 percent in the last survey.

In the previous survey, only 10.9 percent said they wanted their addresses and telephone numbers kept private, but this figure rose to 42.9 percent in the latest survey.

A total of 39.7 percent, up from 14.2 percent, said they want their personal history, such as academic and professional backgrounds, kept private.

A little more than 61 percent said they are worried their personal information is being collected without their knowledge, up from about 40 percent.

A total of 58.4 percent, up from 39.3 percent in the last survey, said they are concerned about computer errors cropping up in such things as bank deposits.

More than one person in three said they do not trust private companies to protect their data, with 36 percent saying they do not think firms exercise sufficient care.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/...20031208a3.htm


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Slip-up Exposes Database To Prying Eyes
Robert Lemos

A developer mistake left a sensitive database with detailed personal information, including Social Security numbers, open to public Internet access for a few hours on Tuesday.

The database--frequently used by law enforcement, credit agencies and private investigators--was accessible through a simple search form on the Web and contained millions of names, social security numbers, phone records and public records such as residential histories, confirmed LocatePlus.com, which provides the database service.

"It was a pretty small breach of information," said Jon Latorella, CEO of the investigative services company. "It was only our bottom tier of information, or one up from the bottom."

LocatePlus shut down public access to the database around 10 a.m. PST. Latorella said that perhaps several hundred queries were made of the database and that 95 percent of those were apparently from security researchers who detected the breach.

While the company was working on an application to make the database information available on wireless devices, a developer opened up access for a limited range of Internet addresses to test the mobile service, Latorella said. The change resulted in the database being opened up to public access.

LocatePlus, based in Beverly, Mass., is investigating the incident, Latorella said. He stressed that the security surrounding the company's database service hadn't been breached. Moreover, the database routinely logs the Internet addresses of users, and so the company will know who had accessed the data.

Public access to the database underscores the danger inherent in placing such information on the Internet: Even the smallest slip-up can lead to a data leak.

"It is a little disturbing, to say the least," said Alfred Huger, senior director of engineering for security software firm Symantec. "Uncontrolled access like this, to this level of information, makes identity theft trivial."

Security analysts at Symantec discovered the glitch when someone posted the address of the database to an Internet relay chat. Symantec notified the FBI and CNET News.com. Soon after, LocatePlus was notified of the incident.

"We would have caught it in a day or so, but the response was very helpful," Latorella said.
http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-5118138.html


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Chinese Cyber-Dissident In Solitary Confinement
AFP

Chinese cyber-dissident Huang Qi, who is serving a five-year jail term, was put in solitary confinement after representatives of a media watchdog tried to visit him in prison, the group has said.

Huang was moved to a two-square-metre unfurnished cell at Nanchong prison, south-western Sichuan province, and was forced to sleep on the ground, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement on Friday.

This happened after a two-member delegation from Reporters Without Borders tried to visit Huang in late October, and were turned down by the prison governor, according to the group.

After several days in solitary confinement, Huang was moved to a larger but "closely monitored" cell with other prisoners, the statement said.

Nanchong prison officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Huang was convicted on May 9 by an intermediate court in south-western China's Chongqing municipality.

He has been in prison since June 2000 when he was arrested for publishing political information on his website, http://www.6-4tianwang.com.

The website originally listed information on people who had gone missing, but soon became a forum about people who had disappeared into police custody, usually because of their political or religious beliefs.

The site carried reports on dissidents, the separatist movement in north-west Xinjiang province, the banned Falungong sect and the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests of June 1989.

China seems determined to stamp out dissent on the Internet, as reflected in a wave of detentions and trials in recent months.

However, in one small sign of a less harsh approach, 23-year-old Internet dissident Liu Di was released from a Beijing prison late last month after being held for a year without charges.

Reporters Without Borders welcomed this move, but said it was not enough.

"It should not be allowed to (overshadow) the fact that dozens of Internet users and cyber-dissidents languish in jails in China," it said.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...732107164.html


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Computer Investigations May Conflict With Privacy Rights

New Zealand investigators sidestep concerns of Australia's privacy commissioner
Stephen Bell

Questions are being asked on both sides of the Tasman about the privacy implications of investigators searching the computer systems or ISP logs of
people who allegedly trade copyright or illegal material over peer-to-peer networks.

Australia’s Federal Privacy Commissioner, Malcolm Crompton, questions the tactics of those acting on behalf of owners of copyright material in scanning the ISP logs of people allegedly trading, for example, music tracks and video clips.

“This has the potential to invade the privacy not of the person being chased, but of all the people that have ever used that ISP. [It’s] not appropriate, it’s a sledgehammer to crack a walnut,” Crompton says.

He emphasises that when going after offenders, investigating companies must be careful not to intrude on personal information.

“I challenge both the digital industry and software pirates to recognise that digital rights management includes both the right of protection for intellectual property and the right of protection for personal information,” says Crompton, addressing the 11th Biennial Copyright Law and Practice Symposium in Sydney last month.

Auckland-based forensic specialist John Thackray said action against ISPs themselves is under way in Australia and could shortly hit New Zealand. A week after his comments, local file-sharing service p2p.net.nz shut down.

Meanwhile, the Department of Internal Affairs in this country is practising a simpler method of detecting allegedly illegal downloads, doing away with the need to search ISP records. An inspector logs into the P2P network, scans traders’ folders for certain files and downloads any apparently offending ones made available by New Zealand sources.

At least two people have been prosecuted for trading files when the file transfer has apparently been triggered entirely by the inspector.

Computerworld has asked the DIA, lawyers and Justice Minister Phil Goff how such a search squares with the requirements for search warrants in the “real world” and with the amendments introduced into the Crimes Act this year that prohibit access to another’s computer system without authorisation. Opening a P2P resource could be seen as an implied authority to access, but if a user were specifically to deny investigators authorisation, it is unclear whether they would be able to collect P2P evidence. A possible analogy is with someone holding an “open home” to sell their house, but reserving the right to turn away particular visitors. This might include law-enforcement officers seeking to search a property for evidence of crime without a search warrant.

In the physical world, an inspector has to obtain a warrant allowing a search only on a particular premises, even if they are seeking something very specific, and they can only get a warrant if there is reasonable evidence of actual trading. The department’s inspectors, acting on legal advice, previously only considered they had sufficient evidence for a warrant when a suspect, invited to upload a file to the inspector, has done so willingly with a deliberate action on their computer.

Potential for incrimination also exists. Someone could be trapped into downloading an innocently named illegal file, then reported to the DIA, who could upload the file from the user’s P2P folder before he/she had a chance to view and delete it.

DIA Gaming and Censorship head Keith Manch says “mistakes [in downloading files] are not established as a defence under the [Films, Videos and Publications Classification] Act”.

Some internet users also see problems in the censorship legislation involving “offences of strict liability” and not taking account of intent (in legal language, mens rea) or the lack of it.

No reply had been obtained from any of the official sources by press time. Goff’s private secretary had forwarded Computerworld’s questions to Internal Affairs minister George Hawkins.

An anonymous newsgroup source, who appeared well acquainted with the procedure of the DIA investigation, argues it was not an intrusion on information in general or a “fishing” expedition through the files of innocent users. Inspectors were looking for particular files and therefore not searching through computers that did not hold those files. They are not violating innocent users’ privacy, as the Australian privacy commissioner suggests might happen in Australia, the source argues.
http://www.computerworld.co.nz/news....D?OpenDocument


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West African Academics Connect Up Online
AFP

DAKAR - Students and teachers at a French-speaking digital campus in the Senegalese capital Dakar follow courses on-line, download text books which would cost too much to buy and enjoy access to a wealth of Internet data.

Their experience will be important input at a groundbreaking global summit on bridging the digital divide, the World Summit on the Information Society, which opens in Geneva Wednesday with the aim of reducing the digital gap between rich and poor.

Abdou Faye, a master's student of human resources in Dakar, says the digital campus facilities here give local students access to books they would otherwise never be able to afford.

"Some works cost 65,000 CFA francs (100 euros/120 dollars). I couldn't buy them," he said.

The campus with its 100 computers connected to the Internet was set up at the initiative of the Francophone University Agency (Agence universitaire de la francophonie - AUF), a worldwide network of more than 450 French-speaking higher education and research establishments.

"By putting lecture courses and research papers on the Internet, the campus has demonstrated that Africa is not a scientific desert and that it can compare with the northern hemisphere countries," said Bonaventure Mve-Ondo, head of the AUF's west African bureau.

Mve-Ondo says the centre's vocation is to make knowledge, essentially a product of the northern hemisphere, more accessible to everybody.

The digital campus first went into operation in October 2000 and now between 400 and 500 mainly students use its facilities daily at a cost of only 2,500 CFA francs (3.8 euros/4.6 dollars) a month, greatly reducing the time they spend on research.

Facilities are provided for students at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar. Archivist Aminata Sakho Deme assists with online research.

"I have access to databases," says Aminata, who also handles requests for documents from Europe: "I provide a lot of assistance to students preparing their thesis, and also to professors preparing for congresses."

Mve-Ondo says the digital campus also serves as an "enterprise (news - web sites) incubator" for Senegalese graduates provided with technical facilities for a 10-month period.

"Last year young graduates set up a service company here," said Thomas Noel, regional technical coordinator: "There were six to begin with. Now they're out of the incubator and there are 30 of them."

The digital campus also helps university staff in obtaining teaching materials.

Linguistics professor Moussa Daff has used the Internet to find material for his lectures.

"Without the the Internet, I would have to go to Europe to buy books," he said: "Now I can give my students web-bibliographies."

But above all he considers the Internet a fantastic means of communication, enabling him to talk to other academics and get his own research papers more widely known via his on-line review Sudlangue.

Five other west African cities, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali, Cotonou in Benin, Ouagadougou in Burkina-Faso and Niamey in Niger, have followed Dakar's example and set up digital campuses equipped with between 25 and 70 terminals.

Four other more modest information centres with 10 to 15 terminals have been set up at Lome in Togo, Conakry in Guinea and Nouakchott in Mauritania, and in a further Senegalese town, Saint-Louis.

Cooperative networking takes places between the various centres.

"Thanks to an online advertisement recently, researchers in five countries of the region realised they were working on the same project and and set up contacts with each other," said Noel.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...summit_senegal


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Merger of Digital Rights Management and Peer-to-Peer Networks to Create ''eBay'' for Digital Goods

DigitalContainers patented ecommerce-enabled DRM system allows for secure distribution of media and payment collection over peer-to-peer networks.
Press Release

DigitalContainers Inc. announced today that its solutions can provide ecommerce-enabled digital rights management (DRM) solutions for use in peer-to-peer networks, creating a global market for digital goods with over 150 million potential customers.

According to the recent white paper "Integrating DRM with P2P Networks: Enabling the Future of Online Content Business Models" by Bill Rosenblatt, president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies and managing editor of the Jupitermedia newsletter DRM Watch, integration of DRM into P2P architectures is inevitable, as IP owners try to walk the fine line between embracing functionality that users want and maintaining control over their IP. The white paper proposes that DRM systems should:

1. Be able to support a user's reasonable content usage expectations.

2. Provide simple ways to define and implement content business models, including rights specifications and commerce terms.

3. Embrace standards for creating content rights specifications.

4. Support Web services to foster the development of services that P2P network participants can use in conjunction with DRM schemes to create new types of content-related services with minimized cost and complexity.

DigitalContainers is a DRM technology vendor that is addressing these challenges today. DCI has patented critical content security, authentication, e-commerce and media playback technologies suitable for use in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and digital rights management (DRM). DCI's technology allows intellectual property owners to preserve the monetary value of digital content as it travels from content owner to consumer or from consumer to other consumers by protecting it from unauthorized use and enforcing appropriate payment terms and conditions.

Rosenblatt concurs, "DigitalContainers is a DRM technology that supports lightweight Superdistribution through its Hybrid P2P architecture. It supports the ability to describe content rights in a fine-grained manner, the ability to facilitate on-the-fly server-based user authentication, and rich functionality for supporting a wide variety of business models, including payment processing, onboard the encrypted content objects rather than on a server."

"Our system solves the problems that the content industries are having with P2P file trading," said Chip Venters, president and CEO of DigitalContainers. "Now it's possible for organizations and individuals of all kinds - from the largest movie company to the smallest garage band, fledgling authors, professional photographers, financial analysts, or large and small catalogers - to easily and profitably package, distribute, protect and monetize all types of digital goods. We envision it as an "eBay" for peer-to-peer networks."

Both the "Integrating DRM with P2P Networks" white paper and a white paper detailing DigitalContainers' technology are available for download on DigitalContainers' web site www.digitalcontainers.com.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...&newsLang =en


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Altnet and Indie Labels Serve Up a P2P Holiday Feast

The Jethro Tull Christmas album is among a long list of new releases using Altnet to securely distribute music to almost 100 million users on Peer to Peer applications
Press Release

Altnet, Inc., a subsidiary of Brilliant Digital Entertainment (AMEX:BDE), the leading provider of secure digital media via peer-to-peer technology, today announced a slate of new distribution agreements for classic rock and blues catalogs on independent music labels. Coming to Altnet are such Grammy winning and Billboard chart topping acts as Jethro Tull, Ike Turner, Otis Rush, Aaron Neville and Benny Mardones.

Altnet patented technology allows artists to be paid when users share their files on peer-to-peer file sharing applications. Unlike other Internet music download sites that limit the ability of artists and labels to market themselves, Altnet gives its customers direct control over their music distribution including the ability to dynamically set pricing, control promotional messaging and placement, and tools to maximize interaction with fans and consumers in a viral marketplace.

For music labels, Altnet offers an audience of over 100 million music fans worldwide through its relationships with peer-to-peer programs such as Kazaa and eDonkey and web search engines such as Excite's My Search. Altnet's Gold File Top Search service gives licensed music a special gold icon and top-of-the-list premium placement in search results and integrates a seamless payment system.

For music fans, Altnet offers a growing collection of mainstream and independent music from over two dozen labels as well as simple one-click purchasing and the PeerPoints(tm) program which rewards users for sharing Altnet licensed files.

Greg Ross, CEO of independent label Go Kart records said, "Altnet proves that people will pay for downloaded music, when it is delivered in an intelligent way at a fair price. If the RIAA and the major labels stopped suing people and spent their time working with a model that is as usable as Altnet's, they would make more money and stem the tide of illegally downloaded music."

In addition to music, Altnet also distributes a wide selection of video games, software and movies. "When given a chance, users will share licensed files just as much as unlicensed ones," said Derek Broes, EVP of Altnet. "We sweeten the pot by rewarding users for doing the right thing and sharing licensed files instead of unlicensed ones. The major labels have declined to offer file swappers a legitimate way to share files, even though Altnet has a proven system that ensures everyone can be paid. It's really their loss, but it gives a tremendous leg up to independent labels who work with us and our built-in audience. There is no need to lure users away from file sharing applications, the users are ready and willing to play fair as long as they have a role in the process," added Broes who is a featured speaker on the "Taming the Peer-to-Peer Beast" panel at the iHollywood Forum "Music 2.0: A Digital Music Summit" today.
http://www.primezone.com/pages/news_....mhtml?d=49467


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File-Sharing Site Calls Suit Futile
Bill Heaney

The nation's most popular file-sharing, or peer-to-peer, Web site yesterday tried to play down a criminal indictment launched against it by the Taipei District Public Prosecutors' Office, citing failed attempts to close similar sites in the US.

"Peer-to-peer sites have been prosecuted before and have been found not guilty," Philip Wang (???), spokesman for Kuro.com.tw (???), told the Taipei Times yesterday.

"Given this trend, even the US federal court is taking the position that the technology itself is no different from a Xerox machine. It is the user's behavior that infringes copyright," he said.

Wang's comment goes to the heart of the peer-to-peer dilemma. While the technology itself may be neutral like a knife -- a useful tool for cutting vegetables that can also be used to kill -- site owners are allowing millions of people to copy movies, music and software without paying for it, which is crippling the entertainment industry, officials say.

On Thursday, the prosecutor's office filed charges against Kuro's management team and one subscriber under the amended Copyright Law (????). Wang said that his company had not been served legal papers as of yesterday evening.

Music industry representative body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) was celebrating the move yesterday.

"Our position is that this is great," IFPI Taiwan branch secretary-general Robin Lee (???) said yesterday.

"This proves that peer-to-peer is illegal and infringes copyright. It also shows that Taiwan's copyright laws conform to global standards," he said.

"It also means that Kuro and Ezpeer should close down their businesses," Lee added.

But cases against peer-to-peer sites have been notoriously difficult to prosecute. Napster, the world's first peer-to-peer site, was declared illegal and closed in 2001, but in April this year, the Los Angeles District Court dismissed cases against Web sites Grokster and Morpheus, ruling that their peer-to-peer technology could be used to share files like movie trailers and non-copyright music legally, as well as to download music files without the record labels' permission. It could not be proven that the site owners had direct knowledge of its users' infringement, the ruling said.

This ruling is currently under appeal, but it forced the music industry to change tactics and go after individuals. Since September, the Recording Industry Association of America has sent out 400 warning letters, received affidavits from over 1,000 former file-users and more than 200 settlements, Agence France Presse reported Wednesday. The same day, the association launched 41 new lawsuits and sent out 90 new warning letters to file-sharers.

Taiwan is following suit and has filed charges against five individuals, the most recent one on Thursday with Kuro against Chen Jia-hui (???), who allegedly had stored 970 illegally copied song titles on her computer's hard disk.

"We want to take this chance to give peer-to-peer users a warning that they need to reconsider what they're doing and give up their membership of peer-to-peer sites," Lee said.

International IPR experts welcomed the news of the prosecutions yesterday.

"The Internet is the new frontier," Jeffrey Harris, co-chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei's Intellectual Property Committee.

"The law in Taiwan is quite clear. Offering to sell unlicensed products over the Internet is against the law," he said.

But Harris' counterpart at the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei expressed concerns that there might be better ways to tackle IPR violations.

"If you look at these cases, there's a lot more sensationalism to them than actual results," John Eastwood said.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/fron.../06/2003078502


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Distributed Trojans (not that kind)
Eric Bangeman

Malicious programs such as viruses and Trojan horses have become increasingly sophisticated over the past couple of years. At one time, a virus would connect to the Internet, and go to a designated IP address (either a server or other compromised computer) to download further instructions for wreaking havoc. That method proved easy enough to defeat: find the designated machine and take it offline. The Sobig virus from this past summer highlighted further strategic development on the part of the writer(s). Instead of a single machine, there were 20, and the communications were encrypted. However, there was still one machine acting as a download site, which was taken down once it was discovered. Now, malware authors are going to the next logical step: peer-to-peer networks.

Joe Stewart, a computer expert at Lurhq, a security company based in Chicago, said that he discovered this new phase in the evolution of Trojan horse programs while taking apart a program called Backdoor.Sinit, which has been circulating on the Internet since late September. Sinit, Stewart said, does something unexpected: It uses the commandeered machines to form a peer-to-peer network like the popular Kazaa program used to trade music files. Each machine on the network can share resources and provide information to the others without being controlled by a central server machine.

"It's like Kazaa only without all the pesky copyrighted files," Stewart said. And, as the music industry has discovered, when there is no central machine, "these tactics make it impossible to shut down," he said.

What is particularly interesting about this development is that there is now greater economic motivation on the part of the virus writers. Instead of popping up messages like "I hAv3 haX0r3d yuor G1bs0N," the new breed of viruses create networks of infected machines which can then be used for more nefarious purposes such as serving pop-up ads or downloading programs that cause a user's PC to dial up 900-numbers and rack up obscene charges. The "headless" nature of these new malicious P2P networks will also make them more difficult to destroy:

The implications for the Internet of the new breed of Trojan programs are troubling, said Bruce Schneier, the founder and chief technical officer of Counterpane Internet Security. "A self-replicating peer-to-peer network is kind of scary," he said, not just because a less easily detectable network is bad news, but because it offers proof that hackers, once primarily interested in breaking into systems for thrills, now have a profit motive.

When behavior becomes profitable, it becomes that much more difficult to stamp out. Given that the profit motive stands to make Trojan horses and other types of malicious code ever more ubiquitous, it becomes even more important to stay on top of your own security. Those who do not may end up paying a high price.
http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/1070914654.html


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Developing Mobile Peer-to-Peer Networks
By Syndication

Since PacketHop's special software essentially creates a "mesh" of connections between all the devices, the wireless network becomes more robust at delivering data where it needs to go.
Can you hear me now?

For cell-phone users, that simple question often points to one of the most frustrating things about cell phones or any other wireless communication network -- the hassles of maintaining a connection to a central and often distant transmitter.

While that can be maddening for cell-phone users, the situation can be even worse for mobile workers who are increasingly switching to wireless 802.11, or Wi-Fi, data networks.

As some Wi-Fi users know from experience, the quality of wireless connections between computers and so-called access points, or APs, can vary greatly.

A Wi-Fi PC in a home living room, for example, might have no trouble connecting to an AP in the den. But a Wi-Fi laptop in the kitchen might not connect because of the pipes in the walls that separate the room from the den.

So several companies are working on new schemes called "mesh networking" that might ease the aggravation. And one start-up company, PacketHop in Belmont; Calif., has hashed out a particularly interesting way to form these mobile meshes.

Making a Mesh of Things

PacketHop's technology is a set of specialized software that can be embedded into mobile devices and wireless network transmitters. The computer code allows each device within the wireless network - whether a cell phone, laptop, handheld computer -- to act as a "node," or relay point, and to route digital data along to other compatible devices nearby.

Data bounces, or "hops," from one device to another until it reaches the device that requested the information. If a node becomes unavailable due to interference or other problems, other nearby devices can pick up the slack in relaying the bits of data.

Since PacketHop's special software essentially creates a "mesh" of connections between all the devices, the wireless network becomes more robust at delivering data where it needs to go.

"The routing [software] in each device discovers instantly neighboring devices and broadcasts to [it]," says Michael Howse, chief executive officer of PacketHop. "The net effect is that it creates a topology of peer devices."

Although the companies working on similar mesh networking solutions, Howse claims PacketHop has several distinct advantages.

For one, the company and its technology is a spinoff of SRI International, a Menlo Park, Calif., research firm with more than 30 years of experience in developing network protocols -- including those used by the ARPANET, the military data network that was the predecessor to the Internet.

In fact, PacketHop claims the technology is similar to the interconnected approach used in the wired world of the Internet. "The idea," says Howse, "was to create an instant, mobile Internet."

What's more, since the technology is just a small software code of about 500 kilobytes, Howse claims it can be easily added as part of any common wireless communication scheme -- including Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

"We create a whole new capability," says Howse, "not reinvent the wheel."

J. Gerry Purdy, principal analyst with wireless research firm MobileTrax in Cupertino, Calif., says development of mesh networks is a natural progression for wireless communications.

"I think it's an important development in making wireless networks more useful," says Purdy. "It's just taking what [known technology] works in the wired world and make it work wirelessly."

But, he cautions it remains to be seen if and when mesh networks will develop.

"Most of the mesh networking effort today is in an evolutionary stage," says Purdy. And while SRI's technology looks interesting, "[PacketHop] is a true start-up company and haven't been able to demonstrate a true [commercial] system."

PacketHop's Howse says the company is confident in the technology and has recently raised $5 million from U.S. Venture Partners, SRI and others. And he says the company is already building a mesh network for a "big trial" in the first quarter of 2004 with an undisclosed commercial customer.
http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/22829.html


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SCO CEO Publishes Open Letter On Copyright
ILN

Darl McBride, the CEO of SCO, has published an open letter on copyright. McBride argues that the GNU GPL violates the U.S. constitution and U.S. copyright laws.

Letter at http://www.sco.com/copyright/


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Norwegian Court Rules No Liability For Linking To Site
ILN

Thanks to an ILN reader for reporting that a Norwegian court has ruled that merely linking to a site that provides access to file sharing software does not infringe copyright. The case involved an action against portal Startsiden.no which had a link to such software. The court ruled that there was insufficient causality between the website link and the infringements.

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ANNO 2003: Legal Peer-to-Peer Solution Will Ignite New Web Boom

Payshare delivers legal, protected and profitable online distribution
Press Release

Anybody can sell their own digital content -- such as music, movies, software or electronic books -- legally and profitably with Payshare, a new digital distribution service that legitimises peer-to-peer. Payshare, developed and patented by software house ANNO 2003, will revolutionise the way digital content is distributed. "Payshare combines the anarchy and community of peer-to-peer file sharing with the rights-to-profit and free market ideals of capitalism," says Norbert Boehnke, sales director, ANNO 2003.

The Payshare distribution model allows anyone to profit by copying and promoting digital goods, and gives original content owners a far higher profit margin than traditional distribution models. Original content owners register their digital content with Payshare and make the product available online. Purchasers buy the product and have the option to register with Payshare as a 'co-publisher'. Co-publishers distribute the content (through, for example, a website, or a peer-to-peer network) and receive a percentage of the retail price. The percentage a co-publisher receives is set by the original content owner. "Payshare undermines traditional distribution models. Anyone -- from home movie makers to unsigned bands or established artists -- can sell their content digitally, at no risk of piracy and with a higher profit margin. Traditional music labels or movie distributors suddenly have little value to offer," says Boehnke.

The first product to be distributed using Payshare is ANNO 2X, video-compression software from ANNO 2003. ANNO 2X can squeeze four hours of DVD-movies into just 630 MB at broadcast television standard. "ANNO 2X is a tool for archiving DVDs to a hard disk drive. But, more important, it helps people sell their own movies online as it lets purchasers download, and resell, content faster. For that reason, and to demonstrate Payshare, we decided to make ANNO 2X the first product available through Payshare, says Boehnke. "The web gave everyone the right to publish. Payshare gives them the right to profit too," says Boehnke.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...2003,+04:00+AM


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Kofi Annan: Keep Media Free!

GENEVA -- A summit of world leaders focusing on expanding the Internet must reaffirm media freedoms and the rights of ordinary people to stay informed, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday.

It is one thing for governments to establish regulations governing the media, Annan said in remarks prepared for delivery at a parallel conference of broadcasters from around the world.

"But when they go further down the slope toward censorship and harassment, all of us -- and potentially our rights -- are imperiled," Annan told participants at the opening session of the World Electronic Media Forum.

The media forum has drawn 360 organizations from 112 countries. Although U.S. networks are not taking part, the Canadian-based North American Broadcasters' Association, the British Broadcasting Corp. and state-owned broadcasters from France, Russia and Japan and a host of developing countries are taking part in the four-day meeting.

The forum is running at the same Geneva conference center as the Dec. 10-12 World Summit on the Information Society, which is drawing around 60 heads of state and government, mostly from developing countries. Both events are sponsored by the United Nations.

The information summit centers on whether the United Nations should have more control of the Internet -- the key decisions currently are made by a private, U.S.-based organization of technical and business experts known as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN -- as well as who will pay for getting more poor nations online. Rich and poor countries have been split on both issues.

Organizers of the media forum are concerned that the technology-heavy Internet summit will neglect vital issues tied to TV and radio.

Workshops at the media forum consider how the Internet has influenced radio and television, the challenge it poses for public service broadcasters, and how to ensure it does not undermine press freedom, or cultural and language diversity.

Participants plan to hand Annan a document calling on information summit participants to remember that "communications technology is not an end in itself -- it is a vehicle for the provision of information and content."

The broadcasters asserted that "the future is not only on line," but radio and TV will remain dominant means of mass communication in many poor countries for decades.

They said policy makers should not forget them, nor their viewers and listeners, in the rush to the Internet. They also note that freedom of expression should be protected.

Annan said he was aware of their concerns.

"All over the developing world, as antennas and satellite dishes sprout across the landscape -- some of them placed there in defiance of the authorities -- we can see the immense thirst for connection," he said. "Let us show we are listening."

Media organizations and press freedom campaigners had expressed worries that the information summit would skirt human rights issues.

Countries -- including China -- that have clamped down on both regular and Internet media were anxious to restrict references to press freedom in a declaration that will be issued at the close of the information summit, but negotiators reached a compromise over the weekend on wording to be included in the meeting's final declaration.

The summit declaration to be adopted by the leaders mentions media freedoms, including those enshrined in the 55-year-old Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also says governments can place limits by declaring overriding national concerns.

But Shashi Tharoor, U.N. undersecretary-general for communications, said, "The message is clear: Do not do anything to backslide."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61530,00.html


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Meta-Music for the Masses
Seth Jayson

For the past couple of years, the recording industry has tried just about everything to stop the digital music piracy accomplished via peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and the previous incarnation of Napster. The industry efforts have been a little like turning a garden hose on a forest fire. Sure, you get some neat sizzles, and it's mildly satisfying, but man, the flames just keep on coming.

Suing the makers of peer-to-peer software hasn't worked. Suing the file-swappers seems to have little deterrent value, and it forces the industry to play the heavy in the media tribunal. The public has a hard time feeling sorry for a bunch of millionaire lawyers and executives as they haul pimply teenagers and college students into court.

How about paid services with anti-sharing software safeguards like Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) and the new Napster? These have been somewhat successful from a sales standpoint, but they're far from cheat-proof. Certain Scandinavian super-hackers have been cutting through our flimsy American security code more quickly than you can say iTunes.

The latest attempt to stymie file-swappers comes from a consortium called the Content Reference Forum (CRF) founded by Universal Music Group and technology firms as diverse as Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY), VeriSign (Nasdaq: VRSN), and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NYSE: NTT).

The CRF is proposing a new standard media meta-file. This digital nibblet would contain information about the sound or video file, but not the media itself. Instead, the home users' media software would be directed by the meta-file to a server where the real, copy-protected media resides. Then it can be acquired or purchased, subject to the download privileges of the individual consumer.

The CRF envisions some kind of reward system for sharing these files, as a way to encourage users to share them among their online peers.

It also harbors pretensions to become the creators of an entirely new digital-media world -- as evidenced by the not-so-subtle snippet from Michelangelo's Sistine Creation of Adam at the top of its Web page. But version 1.0 looks DOA to me. The reward system seems like a thinly camouflaged effort to enlist hyperactive teens to do online marketing. I doubt it will work. Do they really think that a generation of file-swappers raised on free goods will suddenly be satisfied by high-tech teasers? (And can you imagine the opportunities for Spam?)

I don't pretend to know the final solution to this problem. But I'm certain of this: The game will be won by those who can provide the cheapest content with the least hassle to the end user. If that means illegal file sharing, the software and media industries will have squandered their big advantages in technology and capital.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2003/mft03121207.htm